Piece of My Heart (Under Suspicion #7) - Mary Higgins Clark Page 0,100
a set of keys from his pocket, slid one from the ring, and handed it to her. “There’s a deck around back and a set of French doors that’ll lead you to the kitchen. I’ll try to get him outside to talk to me, but no guarantees.”
Under cover of the woods, Laurie and Leo positioned themselves out of view of the front porch, then watched as Charlie walked toward the house. They heard a knock, followed by silence, followed by another set of knocks. “You home, Dan?” he yelled. “Got a call of some hunters shooting out here. Figured I’d stop by and say hi.”
A moment later, they heard his voice again, at a lower volume. Laurie couldn’t make out the words, but took it as a sign that Daniel Turner had opened his front door. Leo led the way to a wooden deck at the back of the house, his gun held at the ready.
Curtains were drawn inside the French doors that Charlie had described, so they could not see the home’s interior. As Leo stepped on a mat in front of the doors, the mat suddenly gave way, and Laurie’s father lurched sideways, one foot sinking beneath the decking. He grunted in pain and then bit his lower lip, fighting back a scream. She looked down to see the bottom of his calf locked in the steel jaws of a bear trap.
He tried to lift his ankle, but the metal trap was larger than the width of the deck boards that had been removed. Whether the booby trap had been intended for unwanted visitors or for Johnny if he tried to escape, it was now keeping her father from entering the house.
She reached down to see if she could figure out how to open the jaws. “Nothing’s budging.”
“He must have monkeyed with the release,” Leo whispered. “It’s the only way this makes sense as a trap.”
She reached for the door, but he grabbed her hand. “Not alone.”
“Dad, we don’t have time. We need to find them.”
He extended his right hand, offering her his gun. It had been a while since she’d gone to the range with him, but she knew how to fire this weapon if it came down to it.
“Don’t worry about me, Laurie. Just go!”
Laurie slipped the key in the French door and turned it slowly, leaving the key in the lock as she stepped inside.
* * *
The French door opened into a breakfast nook off the adjacent kitchen. The nook provided a clear view of the home’s dining area. Past the dining room, she saw a man standing at the open front door. A handgun was visible at the back of his waistband.
“Really, Charlie. I’ve got to go. I’ve been under the weather. Don’t want to get you sick by having you in.”
Daniel Turner didn’t even wait for his brother to say good-bye before closing the front door and bolting it shut. Seeing a door ajar on the opposite side of the kitchen, Laurie dashed toward it and stepped inside to hide. From her vantage point of what turned out to be a large pantry, she now had a partial view of the living room, where Marcy and Johnny were huddled together on the sofa.
Turner entered the room, his gun now in his hand. “You didn’t make a peep, but I better not find out you hatched some kind of plan while I was gone, or it will be the last decision you’ll ever make.”
Tears rolled down Johnny’s face, and Marcy’s eyes darted wildly between her son and the heavyset man pointing a gun in their direction. Blood was smeared across the right side of Marcy’s neck, and the yellow sweater balled in her hands was streaked brick-red.
“Please don’t hurt my mama,” Johnny wailed. “I’ll be good. I’ll stay with you.”
“But she’s not your mother, Danny. I told you that. Don’t you understand that yet? I’m your real father. I’m the one who was supposed to raise you, and she stole you from me.”
“That’s not true,” Johnny yelled. “You’re a liar. And you talk to yourself because you’re crazy.”
“You shut your mouth, little boy!”
When Johnny began to sob uncontrollably, Marcy jumped to her feet and stood defiantly in front of him, guarding him from the shots that could be fired at any second. Laurie thought she heard the sound of a door opening to her left, but she could not see far enough into the kitchen to know whether someone else had entered the house.